Piety, Longings, and Secrecy

In May of 2006, Melinda Harmon and Mark Mangelsdorf were sentenced to 10-20 years in prison for bludgeoning Melinda's husband to death. Back in 1982, when the crime was committed, members of the very quiet and conservative community in Olathe, Kansas whispered their suspicions from barber shop chairs and across backyard fences, calling it the "Nazarene divorce". District Attorney Morrison speculated that in Melinda's mind, "it was much better to be the widow Harmon than the divorcee Harmon."

The ten-year marriage of the Reverend and Mrs. Matthew Winker came to a violent end when the demure Mary Winkler shot her 31-year old husband in the back with a shotgun and left him on the floor to die. Mary's family was aware of the cruel and abusive side of the pastor of Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, Tennessee and continually urged her to leave him. According to church doctrine, a divorce would have made Winkler ineligible for his position in the church. Mary was very late in contributing to her own defense as she remained determined to protect her late husband's reputation.

Kevin Ogle, pastor of Northgate Colonial Baptist Church in Camden, South Carolina faces 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a child as a result of an undercover sting operation targeting adults using the internet to engage in illegal activity with children. The pastor allegedly engaged in sexually explicit conversations and shared photos of his genitals with what he believed to be a 14-year old girl.

What do these three cases have in common? Each was birthed out of a lifestyle of "Christian" piety, unmet longings, and secrecy.

Piety (from the root word "pious") is supposed to be a good thing. Merriam-Webster Online (www.m-w.com) offers five definitions of the word "pious" with four being very similar and represented well by the first:

"marked by or showing reverence for deity and devotion to divine worship"

The fourth definition comes closer to the actual human practice of piety:

"a: marked by sham or hypocrisy, b: marked by self-conscious virtue"